by Eric Red
“That boy slung over that saddle out there is our’n.”
“You murdered him.”
“Mean to dispute the reward?”
Noose sipped his whiskey, staring straight forward. He didn’t answer. He wasn’t unduly worried about being shot because the gunmen were not going to shoot him without sufficient provocation: it would be messy to explain when the marshal got there with the bartender as witness and might complicate getting their reward for Barrow. And Noose knew they knew he knew it.
Butler looked into his own glass. “Reckon you want a cut of the reward?”
Noose shook his head. “Nope.”
“Want the whole reward?”
Noose finally looked at Butler and the others, and his gaze was sure and steady. “I brung him in alive. You boys murdered him and you’re gonna pay.”
The leader of the bounty killers reared up from the bar and swept a huge, incredulous look across the amazed eyes of the hardened grizzled gunmen lining the bar. A chuckle passed through the men like the sizzling fuse on a stick of dynamite, burning down to Butler, who laughed cold and mercilessly.
Noose didn’t laugh. “You boys must be desperate. I figure the reward for Barrow comes out to less than a hundred dollars each. Maybe you should get real jobs. You know what they say, boys . . . you’re worth what they pay you.”
“Well, mister, what you got in mind to do about this here situation?”
“I’m gonna tell the marshal you killed Barrow.”
“Twelve of us says different.”
“We’ll see.” Noose just smiled to himself, which riled the killers. “Meantime, nothin’ to do but wait.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ERIC RED is a Los Angeles–based novelist, screenwriter, and film director. His films include The Hitcher, Near Dark, Cohen and Tate, Body Parts, and The Last Outlaw. He has written seven novels. The first two of his Joe Noose Western novels, Noose and Hanging Fire, are being published by Kensington Publishing in 2018 and 2019. Red divides his time between California and Wyoming, with his wife and two dogs. Find out more about Eric Red and his books and films on his official website, EricRed.com, on Facebook, OfficialEricRed, and on Twitter, @ericred.